Hurricane Fabian blew away visitor arrival figures for September, but the Island is still marginally ahead of last year overall, official figures released last night show.

But in the critical sector of air arrivals, numbers are still behind 2002 - which itself was a recovery year after the September 11 attacks wiped out the 2001 season. There was good news in the customer satisfaction stakes, with 96 percent of visitors in August stating the Island met or exceeded their value expectations.

The latest figures show August visitor arrivals were up 29 percent compared to last year at 81,795, with air arrivals 4.6 percent better at 35,045.

In September, overall arrivals plummeted by 24.9 percent to 37,903, with air numbers down 48.7 percent. For the year to date at the end of September, total arrivals are up 1.9 percent on 2002 at 409,606, although air numbers are off 7.1 percent at 213,300.

Tourism Minister Renee Webb said the August figures were “positive” but she warned the loss of hotel beds caused by Hurricane Fabian will drag down arrival figures in the coming months.

“August 2003 showed real positive gains in all areas of arrivals as well as in customer satisfaction compared to August 2002,” said Ms Webb. “That's a total of 29 percent overall.

“These are the kinds of numbers we are looking to see. What August's numbers demonstrate is that we are on target to finish the year strong.

“With such initiatives as the Jazz Festival in October while maintaining our marketing should see, coupled with our strategy in the US and UK, we were anticipating seeing a reasonable number of visitors by year's end. However, as the statistics indicate, the industry took a major blow due to Hurricane Fabian. The loss of major hotels and some of our smaller properties, and the closure of the Causeway in the weeks following Fabian, will have a ripple effect on our visitor arrivals in the months ahead.”

Fabian shut down the Fairmont Southampton and Sonesta Beach Resort hotels and hit other properties, bringing the Island's hotel bed stock down from 3,100 to 1,800.

Hotel occupancy rates in August jumped from 74.2 percent to 77.9 percent. But a worrying trend is that the average number of nights stayed for the months fell from 6.5 nights to six nights in that month.

Exit surveys in August showed 96 percent of visitors thought Bermuda met or exceeded their value expectations, with 73 percent saying they would definitely return and 76 percent saying they would definitely recommend the Island to others as a business or vacation destination.

Department of Tourism estimates show air visitors spent between $1,150 and $1,200 during June, July and August, which would pump $40.3 to $42 million into the economy.